3 Crucial Ways to Attract the Best Candidates to Your Job Posting

Whether business is picking up or one of your staff is leaving, it's time to hire someone new.

Despite advances in technology, selection software, and job posting sites, the hiring process is as long, grueling, and, despite your best efforts, may be as fruitless as ever. For many employers, it seems as though finding the right candidate from scratch is nearly impossible. Time-to-hire is increasing. The longer the vacancy, the longer and more intensive the advertising. And, when job postings are not working, you outsource recruiting for the position.

The job posting is a very important tactic in a complex, multi-step hiring scheme. If deployed correctly, it complements the whole hiring process, by helping you to find relevant candidates to fill positions quickly and strengthen your employer brand.

You are probably saying to yourself, "Well, Hello Captain Obvious!"

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My response, "If it was that obvious, then why are vacancy rates as high as ever, with more than 12.8 million unemployed job seekers looking for work in the US, and with >76% of the workforce willing to leave their current employer for the right opportunity?"

If referrals or internal hiring isn't panning out for you, and you need to fill a position fast, check out the three G's of attracting the best candidates to your job posting:

Go social

Social media has had a big impact on the way we operate in both our personal and professional lives. Social media is a very important sourcing tool helping you to reach more relevant candidates with your job posting, gain social proof for your employer brand through sharing in the network, and provide exposure for your organization and context about the job to active and passive job seekers.

With the rise of social media, real, engaged talent communities are becoming valuable to the employer and job seekers alike. In a talent community, an employer can manage interactions with job seekers or interact on their own branded talent community, through resources such as Cachinko.

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Publicizing your job posting and having an on-going professional conversation can attract the right candidates to your company and your open positions. Engage your candidates where they exist on social networking websites and attract them to your own branded social talent community.

​A major deterrent for qualified candidates is a job posting that doesn't have the important information upfront. In your job posting, include the bare minimum - company name, position title and description, location, and application instructions.

​Include in your job description you must have preferred skills and qualifications, but absolutely be realistic about what you are asking. Do not make the position impossible to fill by asking for rare combinations of skills that you are unlikely to find in one person. Including the right information is important because it tells job seekers that you represent a real company that is serious about hiring an experienced and qualified worker.

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​Get it in the right places

Many companies swear by their recruiting process. They are use to spending on average 20 percent of the cost-of-hire for paid job advertisements on job boards that have loads of profiles but no real candidates. Or, they post everywhere including classifieds on the likes of Craigslist with 50 million visitors looking for puppies and used cars. But, then they complain that more than half of their applicants are not qualified. These sites rake in a lot of underqualified and/or underqualified job seekers. (Yes, I meant to say that twice). Look if you just want to fill positions with warm bodies, then advertise like that all year long. You will continue to flood your applicant stream with irrelevant candidates that will distract you from real candidates with real talent that want to talk with you.

​Instead of posting to general sites, send your posting to niche or industry-specific job boards and share with specific organizations who can publicize your posting to the right people. Find, attract, and engage the rock star candidates with the right attitude and aptitude you need for the long term health of your organization.

What do you think?What other obvious tips can you offer an employer looking for great candidates? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Tony Morrison is the Vice President of Business Development at Cachinko, a unique professional community where social networking and job opportunities come together. His roles include sales, marketing, and business development. He brings passion to Cachinko where he focuses on helping job seekers to find their ideal job and employers to find, ​attract, and engage their next rock star candidates. Find him on Twitter and Talent Connection. And, connect with Cachinko on Facebook or Twitter.. And, connect with Cachinko on Facebook or Twitter.